Main menu

Monthly Archives: July 2011

Post navigation

Have you entered my audiobook giveaway on Twitter yet? If not, no worries – you have one more day. Here’s how to enter.

Okay, writing that just now made me think how weird it is that we use the word “enter” for giveaways. I’m picturing the giveaway as a room in which people automatically appear once they’ve entered with a popping sound effect. “Look, so-and-so has entered the giveaway!” Guess I’m in one of those bizarre word moods. Next I’ll be saying “purple” a bunch of times until it doesn’t sound like a word anymore.

I’ve been known to get like this after visits to the doctor where they take blood. I do not do needles. Not at all. I have so much respect for everyone in the health profession, especially people who take blood. Sensitive people like me are a pain. The nurse did an awesome job of distracting me while I was taking deep breaths and not looking at the blood. She talked about how fresh the fruit is in Jamaica. Dude. How did she know I’m obsessed with fruit? She’s that good! She’s so good that now I want to go to Jamaica and eat the fresh fruit.

Speaking of fresh fruit, I finally hooked up with some real tomatoes (as opposed to the impostor tomatoes that are currently taking over supermarkets nationwide). Yes, I was so happy to see them in the midst of our tomato crisis that I almost made out with a bunch of New England vine ripe ones right there in Whole Foods. I am not opposed to PDA. “A Day in the Life” came on and I was transported back to the Paul McCartney concert, waving my arms to the “ah-ah-ahhhh” part. At the concert, not at Whole Foods. Then I came home, made a tomato and muenster cheese sandwich with mayo on rye, and enjoyed the classic taste of summer. It’s a good sign that these tomatoes taste like tomatoes. Hope is alive.

Without hope, it’s hard to stay positive. We have to keep hoping that our dreams will become reality. Like how I hope When It Happens will be made into a movie soon. You guys have told me how the book played like a movie when you read it. Which makes total sense. As I was writing it, I pictured every scene like a movie. I had a Knowing from the start that it was meant to be a movie. Back then, the book was actually called Trust. My initial plan was to do one-word titles. My friend Jim and I used to walk down Central Park West on warm nights, summer breeze and city lights all around us, visualizing Trust becoming a movie.

Then Trust became a movie.

As if I didn’t already heart Ross enough, David Schwimmer busted out with this absolutely gripping film that just blows you away. I’m taking it as a good sign for When It Happens. And if Liana Liberato wanted to play Sara, I would be one happy girl.

Best of all, I have my peaceful homelife back. I forgot how quiet facing our little courtyard in the back was until the construction work ended. And I finally remembered to look up (as John Dalton advises) and notice that our building’s exterior is gorgeous. I’m not sure the constant noise was worth it, but this place is all sparkly happy now. I’m taking that as a good sign, too.

4. The winner will have two days to email me (susanecolasanti[at]gmail[dot]com) their full name and mailing address. If a response is not received in time, an alternate winner will be selected.

5. The winning mailing address must be located in the United States.

I got to approve the narrators for each of these recordings. They are all amazing. It’s so important to select the right narrator for audiobooks, and Brilliance Audio did an incredible job. You will enjoy!

P.S. The Something Like Fate audiobook came out last year. It rocks as hard as these, just so you know.

spread the love:

Like this:

You know when you start a new book and by the second paragraph it’s obvious that you won’t be able to put it down? That happened with me and The Hunger Games. I wasn’t even expecting to like that book. I only started reading it because of peer pressure. Next thing I know, I’m glued to the page at four in the morning, eyes burning out of my head, not even caring how exhausted I was going to be the next day.

Most books don’t grab me so dramatically. Which made it even more thrilling to discover One Day.

First off, have I been living under a rock or something? David Nicholls has written two other books. Must. Obtain them. Immediately. I love his writing style. He’s so eloquent and hilarious and insightful and relatable…I can’t say enough good things about his phenomenal talent. Books that deal with time in unusual ways have always fascinated me. One Day tells the story of Em and Dex, Dex and Em, on July 15 every year for 20 years. It’s an amazing technique to pull off, and Nicholls does it expertly.

Fave quote: “It’s Helmut Lang.”

I could not be more excited for this movie. I’ve been avoiding the trailer because I want to be surprised by this one. Not that I’ll be surprised by what happens. But I want to wait to see how all the details translate to screen. I’m dreading the ending, though. NO SPOILERS – I will attempt vagueness. At first, I could not figure out why Nicholls chose to end the book that way. But now I think I do. It was a way of maintaining the goodness of their relationship. After that point, it didn’t sound like things would have stayed as happy.

Naturally, I had to spaz out with the movie poster. Since I’m in the movie and all.

Which books are YOU spazzing out over this summer?

spread the love:

Like this:

One thing I love about the cover of Waiting for You is the whole Dawson’s Creek tone. Marisa and Nash sitting out on their pier, enjoying the Now just like Dawson and Joey always struggled to do. So I was happy to see that the Indonesian cover of Waiting for You has the same theme:

Way to go, Indonesia!

If you are even a fraction as obsessed with Dawson’s Creek as I am, you know what tone I’m talking about. Longing for your soul mate to find you. Nostalgia for times you’ve never experienced. A sense of belonging and home and friends and just everything that’s shaping you into the person you will become.

Felicity has that same tone. Maybe that’s why it’s one of my all-time fave shows.

Can I just say how happy it makes me that So Much Closer readers are now giving out warm fuzzies? I love your comments and emails about the warm fuzzies you’re making for people. The idea of warm fuzzies actually came from my camp counseling days. One of the camps I was a counselor at was for kids living with HIV/AIDS. All of the counselors were volunteers, so the camp was only for a week. We tried to fit in as much as we could during that short time. Making warm fuzzies for one another was a way to strengthen connections over one week instead of two months. And as the Arts & Crafts Director, I made sure we had lots of warm fuzzy supplies ready to go. Putting out positive energy makes the world a better place, and warm fuzzies are an excellent form of positive energy. Keep spreading the love, you guys!

So Felicity. It’s not just the tone that mellows me out. The dialogue could not be more perfect. Like when Felicity rents that skanky apartment at the beginning of season three – and the whole time you’re like, “Don’t do it!” – and Ben fills a glass with brown tap water and goes, “There’s like activity in the water.” Or when Javier is ranting how his crazy cousin brainwashed Noel (in his Leon days) all like, “Not to mention that you’re married to someone with a police record. And I’m not talking about Zenyatta Mondatta.” Does it get any more brill than that?

It’s fun to watch all the seasons of fave shows over again. Sometimes I’ll bust out an Office marathon and watch all the eps right from the beginning. But I’m mostly searching for new things to watch with Netflix. As if I didn’t already love Josh Radnor enough from How I Met Your Mother, his movie Happythankyoumoreplease is freaking awesome. The title refers to Universal abundance. To experience more, give thanks and ask for more. That totally resonated with me. Part of my daily creative visualization practice is to give thanks to the Universe. There is an infinite amount of happiness in the world. The connection is clear – thanking the Universe for manifesting my heart’s desires is just like giving thanks and asking for more happiness. Rock on with your fine self, Josh. And thanks for returning my yellow umbrella without even knowing.

Some little things are making me happy today. Like waking up on my own instead of being jolted awake by the Construction Worker Coffee Klatch. After months of crazy noise, I think they might actually be…done? Plus, there is a big fresh chopped salad in my lunch future. What’s better than chopped salad for lunch when it’s scorching out? Other than, say, a vat of ice? I plan on tossing about ten different vegetables in mine. Cheers, everybody.

Like this:

I was a weird kid. I wrote song lyrics all over my sneakers way before people wrote on their sneakers. I quoted quirky David Letterman lines at my teachers, who responded with odd looks. And I was into music people 20 or 30 years older liked. One of my obsessions was The Beatles.

My ma was a hippie. She went around in her poncho, carrying her guitar everywhere. She worshipped The Beatles. I grew up worshipping them, too. I thought everyone did. Two of my good friends in high school were also into music no one else was. One of them worshipped Billy Joel, the other worshipped Fleetwood Mac, and I worshipped Paul Simon. And we all naturally loved The Beatles. So it was a Monumental Night when we went to Paul McCartney’s concert at Giants Stadium in July 1990. Elton John may or may not have been there. It’s all kind of a blur. We had nosebleed seats and didn’t even care (which says a lot, given that I was a maniac about getting as close as possible to the front row even back then). We were 17, obsessed, and freaking out.

Fast-forward 21 years.

My good friend and fellow YA author, Elizabeth Eulberg, asked if I wanted to go see Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium. Um, yeah I did! How cool is it to be friends with another Beatles fan? Especially one who wrote a whole flippin book about The Beatles! The first time I saw the cover of The Lonely Hearts Club, I was like, “I have to meet her.” And then there we were on July 15, going to see Paul McCartney. The seats were much better this time. The Universe totally intervened. Excellent seats, full moon, and it was Elizabeth’s birthday. How perfect was that? I promised Elizabeth that if Sir Paul didn’t sing “Birthday” for her, I would.

Elizabeth has already done an amazing job of describing the concert here – including a cute pic with her shiny Sgt. Pepper’s shirt and the birthday tiara I gave her. So I’ll just share a few intense parts.

The most intense one has to be “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Paul wrote that song for Linda as a tribute to her being such an amazing support when The Beatles were breaking up. It’s one of those songs that always makes me verklempt, no matter how many times I hear it.

When Paul played the first notes of “Maybe I’m Amazed,” I was ecstatic. And then I started singing “maybe I’m” and that was it. My throat got all tight, the tears poured in, and I was reaching for the pack of tissues I had ready by my water. I was like calm down you cannot be a sobbing wreck through this whole song you’ve been waiting to hear live again for 21 years this is it stop crying chill calm DOWN.

You can’t take me anywhere.

Intense in an entirely different way: “A Day in the Life.” When the part that goes “ah-ah-ahhhhh” started, it was like I was 13 again, back in my room with my red tape player blaring the same part, back when a day in my life felt like a year, wishing that one day I’d be living a better life. And the full moon glowed over the stage and we waved our arms in that way you do when you’re worshipping at the altar of your musical religion and it was one of the most transcendental moments of my life.

At one point, Paul took a moment to “take it all in.” Of course he understands about enjoying the Now. What else. Oh, “The Night Before” hasn’t stopped playing in my head. And Paul ended the concert with the most perfect lyrics ever:

And in the end the love you take

is equal to the love you make.

We kept spazzing that Paul was going to sing “Birthday” because Elizabeth said he played it at another concert she went to a while ago. But he didn’t. Not that this made up for it in any way, but after the concert we stayed in our seats and I sang “Birthday” to Elizabeth. I had choreography. Did you know the Hand Jive goes perfectly? Well, it does.

So. Thank you Paul McCartney for being such a rock star after all these years. Thank you Elizabeth Eulberg for sharing that beyond amazing experience with me. I’m already looking forward to remembering it 21 years from now. And When I’m Sixty-Four.